Ex Parte Lukas

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Mar 23, 2016

12311349 (P.T.A.B. Mar. 23, 2016)

UNITED STA TES p A TENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
APPLICATION NO. FILING DATE
12/311,349 0312712009
134145 7590
Staas & Halsey LLP
1201 New York Ave., NW
Suite 700
Washington, DC 20005
04/19/2016
FIRST NAMED INVENTOR
Klaus Lukas
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
United States Patent and Trademark Office
Address: COMMISSIONER FOR PATENTS
P.O. Box 1450
Alexandria, Virginia 22313-1450
www .uspto.gov
ATTORNEY DOCKET NO. CONFIRMATION NO.
2454.1072 1446
EXAMINER
DESAI, RESHA
ART UNIT PAPER NUMBER
3625
NOTIFICATION DATE DELIVERY MODE
04/19/2016 ELECTRONIC
Please find below and/or attached an Office communication concerning this application or proceeding.
The time period for reply, if any, is set in the attached communication.
Notice of the Office communication was sent electronically on above-indicated "Notification Date" to the
following e-mail address( es):
ptomail@s-n-h.com
PTOL-90A (Rev. 04/07)
UNITED STATES PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE
BEFORE THE PATENT TRIAL AND APPEAL BOARD
Ex parte KLAUS LUKAS
Appeal2013-004741
Application 12/311,349 1
Technology Center 3600
Before HUBERT C. LORIN, ANTON W. PETTING, and
JOSEPH A. FISCHETTI, Administrative Patent Judges.
FISCHETTI, Administrative Patent Judge.
DECISION ON APPEAL
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
Appellant seeks our review under 35 U.S.C. § 134 of the Examiner's
final rejection of claims 17-19 and 23-32. We have jurisdiction under 35
U.S.C. § 6(b).
Claim 17 reproduced below, is representative of the subject matter on
appeal.
17. A method for supplying encoded geoimage data from
a server unit to at least one navigation receiver module for a
geographical region pre-defined by geographical image data
1 Appellant identifies Siemens Aktiengesellschaft as the real party in
interest. Appeal Br. 1.
Appeal2013-004741
Application 12/311,349
stored in the server unit, via at least one wireless
communication interface between the server unit and the at
least one navigation receiver module, comprising:
transmitting a message at least with position information
from a navigation receiver module to the server unit;
selecting an expectancy range within the geographical
region by the server unit based at least on the position
information;
determining first geoimage data reproducing the
expectancy range;
encoding the first geoimage data in the server unit to
produce first encoded geoimage data;
transmitting the first encoded geoimage data from the
server unit to the navigation receiver module via the at least one
wireless communication interface;
determining a buffer region surrounding the expectancy
range based on the expectancy range selected;
determining, by the server unit, second geoimage data for
displaying the buffer region;
encoding the second geoimage data to obtain second
encoded geoimage data differing from the first encoded
geoimage data by at least one of image encoding method and
coding depth; and
transmitting the second encoded geoimage data from the server
unit to the navigation receiver module via the at least one
wireless communication interface.
THE REJECTION
The Examiner relies upon the following as evidence of
unpatentability:
Pechatnikov
Schmidt
US 2004/0030493 Al
US 2004/0128070 Al
2
Feb. 12,2004
July 1, 2004
Appeal2013-004741
Application 12/311,349
The following rejection is before us for review.
Claims 17-19 and 13-32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103(a) as
unpatentable over Schmidt and Pechatnikov.
ANALYSIS
Independent claim 1 7 the only independent claim which is before us
on appeal, requires determining a buffer region surrounding the expectancy
range based on:
determining, by the server unit, second geoimage data
for displaying the buffer region;
encoding the second geoimage data to obtain second
encoded geoimage data differing from the first encoded
geoimage data by at least one of image encoding method and
coding depth; and
transmitting the second encoded geoimage data from the
server unit to the navigation receiver module via the at least
one wireless communication interface.
The Examiner found that Pechatnikov discloses at paragraph 186 the
claimed buffer region at the certain area on either side of the route 1630. 2
(Answer 13).
Appellant argues,
... claim 17 recites "determining a buffer region
surrounding the expectancy range" (claim 17, line
14 ), where differently encoded geoimage data is
displayed in the buffer region and the expectancy
range. Nothing has been cited or found in
2 Pechatnikov discloses at paragraph 186 "[ m ]apping engine 802 generates a
corridor map along route 1630. As shown in FIG. 17, the corridor map is
actually made up of a sequence of segment maps 1640, labeled GMO- I,
GMI-2, GM2-3 and GM3-D, which contain segments 1632 of route 1630
and a certain area on either side of the route."
3
Appeal2013-004741
Application 12/311,349
Pechatnikov et al. or Schmidt et al. of determining
a border region surrounding anything.
(Appeal Br. 4).
We agree with Appellant. We find no findings by the Examiner that
show how the certain areas on either side of the route in Pechatnikov are
created by: determining a buffer region surrounding the expectancy range
based on the expectancy range selected; determining, by the server unit,
second geoimage data for displaying the buffer region; encoding the second
geoimage data to obtain second encoded geoimage data differing from the
first encoded geoimage data by at least one of image encoding method and
coding depth.. . . At best, paragraph 186 of Pechatnikov discloses that the
certain areas on either side of the route 1630 of the corridor map seem to be
loaded along with the terrain data for the route 1630 itself so as to
correspond in direction and length with the involved route segment, and do
not surround the route as claimed.
Therefore, we will not sustain the rejection of independent claim 17
nor claims 18, 19, and 23-32 which depend therefrom.
CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
We conclude the Examiner did not err in rejecting claims 17-19 and
23-32 under 35 U.S.C. § 103.
DECISION
REVERSED
4